Open Shame, Open Glory

By Sonia D. Norris

Open Shame, Open Glory speaks about Sonia Norris’ life as a child of God who fell as a result of her own actions. Through the direction of the Holy Spirit, she has given insight into her past experiences and has proven that God who created heaven and earth is real and is a God full of abundant mercies and overflowing grace.
This book is for the non-believer as well as the believer. For the non-believer, it gives hope in this world of sin. For the believer who wants to go higher, it shows how through pressing in you can go behind the veil and dwell in the presence of God. However, desperation and obedience are the keys.
For the non-believer or for those of you who may have fallen from grace, like Sonia did, this book shows clearly that nothing done in life is so awful that God will not accept you, mold and change you into what He has purposed for you to be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Feb 19, 2008
• ISBN: 9781467098205

Sonia D. Norris

Sonia is married to Carl Norris and they have raised three lovely children: Russell who is an Architect, lives and works in the USA.  Julie who is an Accountant, lives and works in Barbados and Matthew who is a student of  Harrison College, St. Michael, Barbados   Sonia and her family are members of the New Testament Church of God, River Road, St. Michael, Barbados, where she leads in worship and ministers the Word of God. Since the initial release of this book in 2004 she has been ministering at various churches and to various women’s groups across Barbados.   She holds the Exhorter’s Certificate and a degree in theology from Harvesters’ Christian University, Bridgetown, Barbados.

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AuthorHouse™

1663 Liberty Drive, Suite 200

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.authorhouse.com

Phone: [phone]

© 2008 Sonia D. Norris. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or

transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 2/11/2008

ISBN: 978-1-4259-6478-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4670-9820-5 (ebk)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2006911304

Printed in the United States of America

Bloomington, Indiana

All scripture quotations used, except where specifically noted, were taken from

the Amplified Bible Copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The

Lockman Foundation.

Used by permission. (www.Lockman.org)

Contents

Dedication

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Contact Information

And when the Lord your God has brought

you into the land which you go to

possess, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

Deuteronomy 11 Verse 29

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my husband, Carl, and my children, Russell, Julie, and Matthew, whom I love dearly. My prayer is that each of you will love God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your might, and love people as you would love yourself.

Foreword

To new believers in Christ who wish to move to the next level: stay focused and keep your eyes fixed on the Lord.

To believers who feel like they are facing a wall they just can’t get past, despite their praying and fasting: it may be that you just need to go back in order to go forward.

To all those who do not yet know Christ and who will read this book: God is real. Some day, surely, he will call on you to stand before him to give an account of what you did here on earth.

I pray that you will be blessed and challenged by the contents of this book.

Acknowledgements

Thanks be to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, before whom I stand with my hands lifted, unashamed, for his abundant grace and mercies to me; for it is because of him only that I am alive today – that I am who I am.

I offer special thanks to Bishop Andre Thomas of Harvesters’ Christian University, whose teachings have not only greatly impacted my life but changed its course forever.

I offer special thanks to Bishop Dr. Alvah Hunte, Rev. Wes Hall, and Rev. John Carter for their valuable input.

I offer special thanks to Janice for all she has been, all she has done, and all she will do.

I offer special thanks to Mummy Belle, Margot, Carl Moore, Rolrick Donovan, and Trish, for all their help and encouragement.

I offer very special thanks to Mary Beckles and Yvette Gibbs for their valuable input in reviewing this revised version.

Last, but by no means least, I offer special thanks to my husband, Carl. Your final touch on this book, again, has truly been for me the icing on the cake. I love you.

Chapter 1

INTRODUCTION

It was a beautiful day in January, 1996. I was walking alone when I said, God, my life is a mess! There must be more to you than me just wearing hats, long sleeves, and ankle-length skirts. Reveal yourself to me. It seemed like God was just waiting to hear my cry.

The following Sunday, an announcement was made at church as follows: There will be a week of training on spiritual warfare by Brother and Sister Larry Freeman; come and hear what God will say to us. I had never really heard about spiritual warfare before, so the thought of learning how to fight grabbed me, since all I seemed to be excelling at was defeat.

So, that did it! I attended the training sessions for the entire week, despite having two children who were in secondary school, a young baby, and a husband whose workload was consistently heavy. Many times, I have questioned myself about how I did it, but I have come to learn that when you are seeking to walk in the way of the Lord—the right way—God gives abundant grace for the path he wishes you to pursue in spite of the vicissitudes of your life.

God truly did give abundant grace, which enabled me to attend all the training sessions—sessions that began to change my life. What I have also come to learn is that when you acknowledge your faults and failures, as God instructed the children of Israel to do in Jeremiah 3:13 (KJV), where he says,

Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD,

that God, who is merciful and just to forgive, is more than willing to move us from the place of brokenness to a place of wholeness. He did say in Isaiah 1:19-20,

If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

In no uncertain terms then, restoration can only be achieved by following God’s way, not ours.

So, these sessions truly did give me a new lease on life, and I soon had the assurance that God was just waiting to hear my cry. You see, I have always loved the Lord. I have always just wanted to be who he had called me to be. In the spiritual sense, however, I seemed to be just experiencing defeat after defeat, fall after fall. My appearance looked good, but inside was dark and gloomy.

For years, I had never really felt good about myself. My life seemed so hard. I felt that God had forsaken me, as a result of my lifestyle, until one day, shortly after the training in 1996, I believe I got the divine revelation of Psalm 37:23-24, which states,

The steps of a [good] man are directed and established by the Lord when He delights in his way. …Though he falls, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord grasps his hand in support and upholds him.

Even though I had never stopped attending church, I could never call myself good or righteous. I kept focusing on my faults and my past failures, and not on the righteousness of God in which he had clothed me, until I read Psalm 37:23-24.

The truth of the matter is that I never really knew of the righteousness of God that was imputed to us through the blood of Jesus and our acceptance of him. I had so often heard this scripture quoted, but not in its entirety. I had never heard the latter verse, which begins with "Though he falls." Could this be really true? Could it be that even though I had fallen and was still in that state, God really considered me good? …righteous?

From this moment on, I began to see myself as God saw me—a broken person for whom Jesus came to heal my heart—a captive for whom Jesus came to preach deliverance.

Chapter 2

GROWING UP

It was easy for me to give my heart to the Lord at the age of ten. I grew up in church, and my mom was an evangelist. I responded to an altar call given at a crusade in

Reviews for Open Shame, Open Glory

[Jennifer H. · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an amazing book, esp if you are aware if a sin in your life or in your past which you are not sure how you will get past. This book has provided me a kind of insight on God's way to help me get past my situation, which I have not received this insight from another book. This is an example of the Holy Spirit speaking & relaying knowledge which will blossom freedom in your life & steady secure walk with God.